Turkey: Re-evaluating the U.S. Alliance

October 15, 2007 18 35 GMT
Stratfor

The article below unmasks the real reasons why Turkey is acting so offended. The Armenian genocide resolution is definitely not a threat to Turkey. Neither is the Kurdish intrusions. The genocide happened prior to the establishment of the present republic of Turkey and the casualties from Kurdish intrusions from the beginning of this year mount to only 50 much less by an order of magnitude than people killed in Turkey from traffic accidents over the end of Ramadan holidays. Definitely these are excuses for Turkey to carry out its long held ambitions in the region.

Summary

A pending resolution before the U.S. Congress that calls the 1915 killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks genocide has brought to light a growing strain in U.S.-Turkish relations. This latest episode seriously threatens to complicate U.S. military logistics into Iraq should Turkey carry out threats to limit U.S. access to the air base in the southeastern Turkish city of Incirlik. The Armenian genocide issue, as well as U.S. protests over Turkish incursions into northern Iraq to crush Kurdish rebels, strike at the core of Turkish geopolitics, and will push Ankara into re-evaluating its long-standing alliance with the United States.

Analysis

New U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen called up his Turkish counterpart, Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, on Oct. 15 to discuss the repercussions to U.S.-Turkish relations from the proposed Armenian bill before the U.S. Congress. The bill labels the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks genocide. The big fear in the Pentagon is that if the resolution passes, Turkey will follow through with threats to further limit use of Incirlik Air Base in southeastern Turkey for support of operations in Iraq.

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Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.